


Made New Again

by mvernet



Series: Sentinel Thursday Prompt Fics [2]
Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Character Death In A Past Life, Established Relationship, M/M, Prompt Fic, Sentinel Thursday Live Journal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 09:55:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15240852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mvernet/pseuds/mvernet
Summary: Originally posted on Live Journal Sentinel Thursday for the prompt. new.While on a camping trip, Blair experiences a sense of deja vu.





	Made New Again

1499 A.D.  
Somewhere in the Mountains of the Pacific Northwest.

The hastily lit fire wasn’t enough to stop the shivers of his little guide. The Sentinel hugged the cold body to him and chanted a healing prayer, sending the melody up to the Gods in order to please them. His Guide held on to the Sentinel’s long braids as was his wont when he was frightened. Coughs wracked the small frame and set his own wild hair flying.

The Sentinel looked around desperate to find something, some woody herb, some aromatic wildflower to ease his Guide’s pain. But they were far from the tribal healers. Far from the safety and warmth of the village they protected. 

It was his fault. He wouldn’t listen to his Guide’s warnings. He never let the Guide fulfill his own destiny of honing the Sentinel’s skills and enriching both their lives. He belittled his Guide in front of the elders because this Sentinel was a fool. Because he denied his destiny, despised his gifts and most of all because the little Guide had thawed his stone cold heart.

A Sentinel from another tribe had tried to enslave his Guide. An action no wise warrior would undertake. The Sentinel was too slow and distracted in his tracking of the Guide. He tried to bring to mind his Guide’s wise sayings. He was a warrior who could hear the smallest creature foraging in the undergrowth. But he could not hear his little Guide’s heartfelt words of advice. 

He had caught up with the other when he was dragging his bound and battered Guide across a river raging with melting snow waters. The other died swiftly, but not before the Guide’s spirit was claimed by the water Gods as their due.

The Sentinel screamed his grief to the heavens as he pulled his Guide’s limp body to the shore. He pounded on his Guide's chest, vowing to reach inside and force the precious heartbeat to begin again. He looked up, tears clouding his vision as a wolf nuzzled his hands and softly whined. The Sentinel lifted the guide and presented him to the wolf.

“I beg you, spirit of the wolf, do not take my guide from me. I was foolish and squandered my most precious gift, my Guide. I am nothing without him. I will humbly bend to your will, give you any tribute. Please, save this noble Guide.”

The wolf spoke to him with a soothing voice suspended in time.

“Sentinel, I cannot save his earthly life this time. His spirit is weary with constant battle. It has taken too long for you to claim him and the Gods want him back. But I can give you three moons to say your goodbyes and I will fulfill your wish to be a simple warrior. You will no longer see and hear what others do not. Do not despair, you will see your Guide again soon in another life. And you both will try again to follow the path appointed to you. Remember, you are spirits merely inhabiting a vessel of flesh and as spirits you are immortal and shall never be parted. Your time on earth is only a blink of the eye of the Gods, meant to expose the spirit to the greatest powers in the heavens. Mercy, forgiveness and love.”

The wolf faded and the devastated Sentinel embraced his Guide and kissed his head. The Guide came to life sputtering and calling for his Sentinel.

Three days later, the Sentinel sat by the roaring fire as his Guide smiled at him and gently stroked his cheek. The river water trapped in his lungs was slowly taking his life. He breathed his Sentinel’s name in his last raspy breath as he left the earthly realm. The Sentinel would soon follow, but not before honoring his Guide in front of the tribe and standing beside the Guide’s funeral pyre. thanking the Gods for a chance, in the future, to be made new again with his Guide at his side.

1999 A.D.  
Somewhere in the Mountains of the Pacific Northwest.

Jim watched as the cheerful campfire, built in a pristine spot near the Columbia River, burned hot and bright, illuminating the weary man in his arms with the subdued colors of the earth that enhanced his natural beauty so well.

“You warm enough, Chief? Want another blanket? It's a little cold for spring.” Jim fiddled with Blair’s jacket, pulling the zipper all the way up and bestowing a kiss on the ponytail tamed curls on his head.

Blair looked up and smiled, biting back a remark about overly protective Sentinels. Blair knew that after his latest bought with bacterial pneumonia, an after effect of his drowning, he couldn’t bring himself to tease and see again the anguish in Jim’s expressive blue eyes.

Blair remained silent and let his body do the talking. He calmed his Sentinel’s fussy hands in his own. He gently placed them around his waist as he snuggled into the warmth of Jim’s embrace. He wrapped the wooly, striped camp blanket around them both. They both stared into the fire as Jim sighed and pulled him even closer. 

Their present closeness was a result of hours of angry words bantered about the loft with the background noise of Blair’s constant coughs and Jim’s guilty grunts.They finally came to an understanding that they had reached a point in their lives where everything from here on out was new to both of them. And although they were both frightened of the unknown, they had agreed to follow a new path, together.

Blair nuzzled the fingers that were tracing the outline of his face as if to memorize it. He glanced up at the man he finally admitted he loved and spoke his thoughts softly. “Jim, I have the strangest feeling we’ve been here before. Like this. A fire. A river. You a sentinel. Me a Guide. But not like this. We were terribly, terribly sad.”

Jim stroked Blair’s lips coaxing a smile from them. “Are you happy now, my little Guide?”

Blair simply nodded as Jim leaned in for a kiss. A wolf howled on the distant riverbank, then disappeared into the night.


End file.
